Hiding
by AzureLazuliBlue
Summary: Beth is a rebel mudokon, the 'terrorist' before Abe. Axle is Big-Bro slig, intent on getting a promotion. The two share nothing in common but it is their friendship that developes that sets off a whole cause of events prequel to Running .
1. Chapter 1: Hiding

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything. Oddworld (c) to Lorne Lanning and whoever-else-made-it

**Author's Note:** A prequel to Running...Well at the moment I'm a bit stuck on the sequel to Running so I might as well write anyway. Axle is Screef, his name is changed by almost everyone who meets him (annoyingly for him); Axle was his original name: weird name (might change it).

I was actually going to do three oddworld updates today: this story, another one under the name of: The Damned, and the second chapter for Searching, sorry. But honestly I don't know if Searching is going to go anywhere now. I recently read another oddworld story 'Gabby's Song' (a very nice fic, totally recommend it if you haven't read it) and realized with horror that I had picked an almost identical story line...so yeah, that's a bit of problem, sorry.

**Chapter 1  
**

**Hiding**

He had always wanted armor.

Shiny golden armor, thick and strong, not the wimpy stuff that the lower casts got. He had seen others wearing it, some had even been those who weren't that high ranking in the first place, so it wasn't impossible not to get it. There were problems though, he did not have the rank to obtain such armor, he had no rank at all

(having being fired from his last job for brutal behaviour. While brutal behaviour was all part of being a guard it was not tolerated if the one beaten was glukkon, even though the glukkon in question was just a low ranking pud, and the "beating" had been little more than a rough shove ),

and this was a major problem if you did not have the moolah to afford it yourself instead of relying on the company to give it for free, then you pretty much couldn't do anything but dream. That was why that when Axle was told he was to be hired by GlassGlow Incorporated as a sentry guard (instead of the usual guard durty he had: lazing around, making sure none of the slaves ran off, you know, falling asleep a lot) he had been over the moon in joy, in a metaphorical sense of course, no slig could jump that high: if they could jump at all.

"You've been assigned to the outer perimeter, sector 7, just over that little river there." stated a little slig wearing a brightly coloured band around one arm with the company's logo printed onto it. While there were few things, if anything, that interested Axle he couldn't help but stare at the bright band. The reason for this was because it appeared ridiculous, the band was to indicate that this slig had authority, should be respected, the little slig was a supervisor; in charge of checking up on others and making sure no one slacked off. But with the combination of the bright coloured band and the tiny stature of the slig in question it all seemed ridiculous: no one would ever listen to _this_ slig.

He was supposed to be showing Axle where exactly to go himself, though clearly he didn't want to; that was why he was pointing out where Axle was supposed to go rather than taking him there. The little slig had several good reasons not to bother or want to show him there, Axle slow moving mind supposed, the main reasons being laziness and fear; fear that Axle would punch him for no reason, or start a brawl. Axle liked this fear, it made him feel even stronger than he already was, though at the same time it also annoyed him greatly. Axle did not thank the small slig as he left, nor was he expected to; unless talking to a superior (boss, manager) or friends/allies with the other to some extent, politeness was not expected, it was not part of the guard duty, it was not considered normal.

Almost everyone was quick to get out of his way as he swaggered through, some stopped and followed him with their eyes. Axle noted that there were no other Big-Bros amongst the guard population, and it made him wonder why, but only for a short time. Axle was not one for thinking, he was more of a doer than a thinker. He didn't tend to think into the future, he lived in the now and prefered it that way, unfortunately though that was how it had ended up with him losing his last job.

On his record it had been stated that Axle had been fired from his last job as a guard for anti-social behaviour. His behaviour, however had not just been anti-social, it had been on the verge of being maniac. That was the way Axle had grown up, like most Big-Bros he generally thought he was better than all those who weren't, and if he thought he was being challenged he became highly aggressive and rude, it was the way of survival.

The last job at the previous company had been to guard some slaves who had been facing execution for attempting to escape; they hadn't even been contained, they were scrawny, stupid and lowly, they had just been expected to scrub away at the floor until they were taken away. Another Big-Bro guard had been assigned to the same job. Upon seeing each other both had immediately decided they hated the other, and within less than a minute the Axle and the guard were in a brawl, trying to kill each other, meanwhile all seven mudokons they had been guarding took the opportunity to escape; most of them had succeeded. And just at the same time, a glukkon supervisor had came waddling in to see what all the noise was about, he had been ignored. The glukkon hadn't liked his authority being ignored and had gotten too close to the fight, a careless swipe and he had been knocked out cold. The fight ended abruptly at this point, the other guard having the sense to run off before he was seen, Axle had just stared stupidly at the glukkon, wondering whether or not he had just killed him.

He had been fired within less than an hour from the incident; he was lucky he hadn't been arrested or shot, but he was a Big-Bro, a slig genetically altered by drugs, made by vykkers, he was expected to be aggressive and, at least, partly insane, his incident had been no big tragedy for anyone, except for himself. Incompetant was what the company had described his behavior as. GlassGlows had been a lucky break.

Axle easily found the bridge which led over the wide but shallow river, which meandered past the factory on one side, overhead there was a sort of roof, wooden and metal rafting making an ugly but strong support. Axle wondered why the glukkons would bother wasting their money on the roof and rafting, didn't seem a very glukkony thing to do, then he remembered that this was a vykker run facility, probably more functional than that of the usual, a lucky thing, very lucky; vykkers normally prefered not to use sligs (due to their said "low" intelligence) and hired interns instead (since they weren't often as violent or lazy).

Axle reached his post, it appeared though that the roof went no further than the bridge. The area he was guarding was in no way guarded against the rain; if it rained of course. It was just a large circle of concrete slabbed over the land with a thin path leading off either side, stretching out all along the edge of the perimeter. Presumably he was just supposed to stand there, occasionally do a little patrol around the edge and then return, rather boring really, but this was all guess work, no one had told him what _exactly _he was supposed to be doing, so if he liked he could just leave this day off and fall asleep, but he wasn't like that, unlike many Axle took his job seriously, if not, too much.

Axle looked around, he may not have been the brightest of beings but he had an eye for security weakness, and he was seeing a lot of them. There was only one security camera buzzing around by itself seemingly pushed to one side, the lens cracked and partly covered with mud, the guy in charge of watching the security camera was probaly asleep anyway, and the gate itself, though tall and foreboding, was missing a hinge and was only half closed, and there appeared to be no one else around here apart from himself.

Deciding that he didn't like this security failure Axle decided he was going to do something about it. He reached out towards the camera and attempted to grab hold of it and pull it back so that it was at least facing path rather than the wall, he abruptly pulled back as his arm felt like it had been punched. He stumbled for a moment in confusion, before his mind put two and two together and realized that the camera had just electricuted him.

So instead he faced the gate, and wondered, for a split second, whether or not they were supposed to be open. Two red lights blinked on in dark shadows and the electronical sound of metal legs standing up was heard. There was already a guard here, he had been mistaken, the other had apparently been sleeping in the shadows beside the gate.

It was just an ordinary slig but something seemed odd, he may have not been a Big-Bro, but wore armor; very battered old looking armor, it had long lost its shine, otherwise there was nothing really that different than normal but something seemed out of place, why was it that this slig had armor when no one else he had seen so far didn't? Something else was off as well, but it was impossible to say what. Well it was possible that he hadn't seen the guards that did wear armor, and with this thought Axle pushed all thought out of his head, and bluntly said.

"Shift's over. Get going."

Axle turned to look at the gate again, it probably should be shut he decided. He kicked the gate as hard as he could but it didn't budge. So he tried shoving it closed, that didn't work either.

"Yeh won't be able ta close it. De bloody thing's bin jammed foe several years now. Dem vykkers don't wanna waste der moolah on somethin' which will no doubt break again." said the guard with battered armor, in an odd voice, unusually high, words all horribly clipped and mutilated. "Also I don't recommend trying to ever touch da security cameras, the bosses won't like that. "

"What's that supposed to mean?" Axle asked loudly, feeling confused. The words were not insulting but the armored slig spoke in a way that made them sound like they were worse.

"Nuttin' much. Just,...watch it."

* * *

Beth watched from the shadows calmly and with seemingly little interest as a slig strode past and out of sight, completely unaware of her presence. Being calm though was not something that could be said for the younger mudokon beside her who was shaking in fear, terrified.

"W-we shouldn't be doing th-this! It's dangerous! We could be killed!" stuttered the nervous one, but quietly.

"Calm down, Zephyr. I've done this plenty of times before," said Beth calmly, but with a slight tone of annoyance in her voice. "and now it's your turn to learn the way mudokons should truly act when in living conditions such at these!"

"But I don't want to! They'll hurt me!"

"Not if they don't find out who you are. And anyway, I don't know why you're getting so stressed. You're not even going to be doing anything."

"Yeah but-"

Beth waved her hand for him to be quiet as another slig came slouching along, but unlike the previous it stopped nearby; dangerously close to the ledge above of a large tank of water. Beth smiled at Zeph at this, and began to creep towards the slig who had momentarily paused to smoke a cigarette, wisely out of security camera range but unwisely because Beth was about, and was going to use this to her advantage.

"Ah! A rabid slog! There are rabid slogs everywhere!" Beth shrieked insanely leaping out at the guard. The slig quickly stepped back, barely having the time to look around before he realized he was standing over nothing, and dissapeared over into the tank, into which he disappeared with a yell and didn't come up again.

Beth looked a little surprised herself for a moment but then headed back to where Zeph was hiding.

"That was horrible! Do you know how much trouble you could get into by killing a guard?!" he asked fiercely, he was scared though, it wasn't anger.

"It was an accident, okay? I've never killed a guard before, I just wanted to scare him and run off!"

Zeph looked horrified for a moment but decided to keep his mouth shut.

Beth took one look back towards the tank then at Zeph, and went back. Hanging from a bunch of pulsing wires there was a controller, it consisted of a simple piece of yellow plastic and three rather large red buttons, checking she was out of sight Beth hit the middle one and the tank gurgled as it began to empty. Zeph looked questiongly at her as she came back.

"At least now he won't drown, or at least hopefully shouldn't." she stated, leading Zeph away from the scene, still out of sight. "Now Zeph, there's going to be a runner soon, up in the northern area bridge, I ain't going because I need to help the others but I want you to go."

Zeph looked even more scared than before.

"Don't you want to leave? Live free?"

"But they feed us here."

"What is given to us can hardly be considered food." Beth scoffed. "You must want to leave."

"No."

"Well I'm not going to force you to, it's your decision, though I disapprove of it. Come on, let's go back to work before they notice we're missing."

And with that the two silently departed, keeping out of sight.

* * *

Axle looked around at the lunch bar. He was quite sure now there were no other Big-Bros, and he couldn't see anyone wearing armor at all, except the slig poking his arm. Axle looked down at this certain slig and recognised it as the one from earlier, battered-armor-slig was the registered name for now.

"What?" he demanded; this should have put the other off into going away, but instead the smaller slig seemed to smile and sat down beside him.

"How'd yeh first day go, newbie?"

The term newbie was generally considered insulting and would have made most bristle in annoyance, or rage (depending on the slig), but Axle had never heard the term before since no one had ever used it on him before, no one had ever dared, and for a full fifteen seconds Axle was silent as he tried to figure out what it meant. He knew the word "new", but bie? Did it mean like: be? Meaning to be in a certain place in the future. So did that mean that the word 'newbie' meant: he was new in a future place of unknown origin? Axle's brain overloaded and he forgot what he was thinking about.

"This is not my first day." he replied.

"Yeh worked in oder factories before? Why'd yeh git kicked out?"

"Anti-social behaviour." quoted Axle, though in reality Axle didn't know what the meaning of the word social was, it was simply another word he had never heard anyone else use.

"Oh." said the slig nodding understandingly. "Well, yer 'ere now, ting's are lookin' up foe yer. Good place, dis place, da vykkers pay us good wages and don't ask foe much in return. And yeh get long lunch break hours." the slig paused to take a draught from the glass bottle he was carrying with him. "De name's Bas. What's yures?"

"Axle."

Bas nodded again but turned around as several other sligs arrived, and upon seeing them, came over.

After a lot of shouted greetings and slapping each other on the back the new sligs sat down as well. Ordinary little things with no armor, weapons were forbidden though in this lunch hall (a clever vykker rule) so it was impossible to say what rank they all were. They all apparently knew Bas well, possibly as a pack leader or something similar. Gangs amongst the slig guards were not uncommon.

They blinked at him curiously for a while in between bouts of conversations amongst each other after Bas had introduced them all. Axle was having troulbe remembering all their names, in fact he could only remember one, and he wasn't even sure if it was correct, but he believed the one slig, with single 180º degree "eye piece" instead of the usual seperate eyes on either side of the head, was called Cutter.

"So you're a Big-Bro, right?" asked one of the ones whose name he had of course forgotten.

Axle nodded, wondering why the slig would even question that, it was obvious, even for him.

"Awesome! We've never had your kind here before, ya know?"

Axle didn't know, nor was he sure whether or not he had just been insulted; maybe it would be on the safe side just to give the other just a _little_ punch...or maybe not, he wasn't sure afterall.

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

Axle should have known that it was a total of four but he had never been tought to count, there had never been a reason for it, and this question infuriated him. Although in his simple view it wasn't an insult (though it _was_: to his intelligence) and he was just angry because he couldn't answer.

"Eight?" he guessed, having overheard the use of this number previously, remembering it since it sounded just like: ate = eaten = food.

The unnamed slig's face scrunched up, "face-fingers" drawing up into a fist to stop himself from laughing. Another slig beside the other, who had been drinking at the time, didn't fare so well and let out a snigger before going into a violent coughing fit.

"He's got the IQ of a door. Dez was right!" hissed one to Bas, luckily for him though Axle wasn't listening and was trying to help the coughing slig from choking by thumping him rather heavily on the back, if anything though this was just making the situation worse.

"Ah forget it. Yeh ain't dat smart yurself. It ain't 'is fault."

* * *

Axle tailed after Bas and other three sligs, who were all surprisingly eager to have him with them. They showed him around the place, pointing out important little things such as where the dorms were, what time he was expected to wake up at and what behavior towards others the vykkers expected. Bas explained the layout of the building in case of a fire drill or any other reason for the whole place to be evacuated, but Axle was like a seive, he forgot it all instantly. Also, though he didn't say this, Axle was having slight trouble understanding what Bas was saying a majority of the time.

"Now dem vykkers normally stay well outta da way, and we don't see dem much, but if they do appear yeh must treat 'em like royalty." advised Bas. "Ask 'em 'ow yeh kin 'elp 'em and agree wit everyting dey say. And yeh fellow guards, treat 'em according to dere rank in yure view, except dat damn supervisor. If he come around, tell 'im to bugger off, but don't give 'im anyting to report which could git yeh fired."

They were now back at the same place in the building where they had started, back just outside the lunch rooms. Cutter and the other two dismissed themselves at this point, quickly hurrying off to their next guard shifts. Axle questioned why there had been no alarm bell to announce this.

"Da vykkers don't like alarms. Says dey confuse up da system. So instead we have to check da time."

"The time?"

Bas pointed up at a round piece of metal clamped onto the wall. The round piece of metal was flat and had numbers littered all around is edge, two black sticks, one shorter than the other and not moving, moved slowly across the piece's face. Seeing the stupified look on Axle's face Bas added:

"It's a clock. Can't yeh read da time?"

Axle shook his head. "Never seen anything like it in my life."

"Most of da new recruits haven't. Dey just don't use dem dat often in da outside world dis days. Tell yeh what, I'll explain it tomorrow. But foe now I gotta run, just copy everyone else till then."

Bas was about to leave but froze as he caught sight of something behind Axle. He turned around to see what the fuss was about and spotted a rather suspicious looking mudokon, who had apparently been going past, staring at them. Bas sighed in annoyance and then shouted at the nuisance:

"What!? Git outta 'ere! Shoo!"

The mudokon quickly turned away from them and hurried off.

"Yeh shouldn't mind da mudokons dat much, I think dey thought o' the same everywhere. BUT watch out for Beth, she can be big trouble."

".....?"

"She's a trickster. She may be just be another mud but she's causes more trouble dan a rampaging scrab. Don't be fooled into thinking yeh can just whack 'er over da head when she passes by and she'll leave yeh alone, nah, just keep outta her way. She won't be trouble for much longer though, if the bosses keep getting all the complaints dey do then Beth is going to meet with an unfortunate accident. The problem is though, no one really knows whether it's Beth or not, but I'm sure it is, she's always sneaking around all suspicious like."

* * *

The first week passed quickly, Axle had adjusted surprisingly fast and well. He and Bas were guarding the broken gate again, this was part of the routine when not patrolling, technically though it was only Axle guarding: Bas had slouched off into the shadows and had gone to sleep. There was a third slig as well but Axle did not know who it was nor had Bas deemed it important, meaning that most likely Bas had no idea who he was either. This third slig was awake as well, but was smoking a cigarette; this was aggrivating the Big-Bro but unfortunately the other slig didn't know this.

Axle watched the other slig take another puff from his cigarette with disgust. Axle was no tree hugger and cared little for personal health but he had never been able to stand the smell of smoke. The slig may have not known that Axle hated smoke but he quickly realized he was being stared at, though it was hard to tell if from the other slig's point of view whether or not Axle was glaring. The other slig instantly felt nervous, he didn't know much about Big-Bros but with all the rumours and tales he had heard he could guess that he was standing dangerously close to what could be equal to an angry volcano.

"Want one?" he asked offering a cigarette to Axle as a sort of peace offering.

The Big-Bro took one look at the half opened ciggarette packet being offered to him before snatching it and throwing it into the river which passed this side of the factory.

"Hey! What did you do that for?! Those cost moolah!"

"Get rid of that cigarette!"

"Why?" asked the slig angrily, hurriedly taking a few steps away, not eager to throw his cigarette away.

Axle didn't answer as he began to approach. The smaller slig instantly thought the better of it and ran away, though he did not get rid of the cigarette. Axle didn't bother following him.

Nearby a red light began to blink rapidly. Axle noticed it and stared dumbly at it for a few moments, then he went over to Bas and tried to knudge him with one foot, _tried_ being the key word. Axle ended up sending the other slig flying, it was hard to control limbs which weren't really your own and weren't meant for anything but moving around.

After a bit of swearing and apologising, things went back to normal. Axle pointed out the light.

"O' dat's just ta indicate we got muds on da run again. Been happening a lot lately. We don't have to do anything. Just shoot any if dey come running dis way."

* * *

Beth had managed to escape into the factory's extensive system of air vents, with her were some ten other individuals, all depending completely depending on her for their survival. So far they had been very lucky, no one had been caught and if the little stunt she had done had pulled off the guards would still be searching for them on the completely wrong side of the building.

Zephyr was not with them, in a way this was for the better, if anything had happened to her brother on the way she would not have been able to deal with it. Beth advised the others to keep as quiet as possible as they followed her, she was wary of guards finding them and was nervous. Sure she had led many escape parties before, not all succesful, but the fear never changed. Clutched in one paw was a sealed jar deftly stolen several years ago by her predecesor, the previous mudokon rebel leader of this complex; he had given the jar as token for good luck when he had finally decided it was time for him to leave to the wilderness as well, nothing more had ever been heard of him.

Its contents were said to be dangerous, he had advised Beth to use it if she saw neccesary, but so far she hadn't, but carried it nonetheless, it made her feel more confident. They reached what appeared to be a dead end, but Beth had used this route before and knew this was fine. There was a metal grating, from which light flooded up from. From previous extensive use the grating came away easily, Beth had to be careful that there was no one in the hallway. Once she was certain she pulled back up with the grating and squeezed her way back past the others, urging them all to jump down. Once they were all out she went herself, dropping carefully so that the grating clinked back in place on its own, mostly.

"Get going! What are you waiting for? A shrykull to come save your lazy behinds?! Move, move!" she hissed, quickly taking the lead and running off ahead of them.

* * *

To his immense embarassment Axle woke up to realize he had fallen asleep. He looked around, it was dark now. Bas was still there though, or he appeared to be, but it was dark and Axle's night goggles only saw in infrared.

"Bas?" Axle questioned the other slig standing nearby.

"Nah, it's me, Dez." replied the other slig. "Bas left a good while ago."

He stood up, told Dez bye, and shuffled off. There was no need for infrared once he reache the bridge over the river, this was all lit up with lights. He continued on mostly in silence, the whirring mechanical noise from his four artificial limbs the only sound.

Axle paused as a loud metal clink, followed by several hushed whispers, interrupted the uneven mechanical sound. He looked around but couldn't see anything, he had probably just imagined it. He was about to continue, thinking that the noise was probably nothing to worry about, when there was several more clinks in succession.

Axle looked up. In amongst the thick metal rafters were a group of mudokons. As had been said before Axle was not the most imaginative of beings and would have probably just continued on his way if it hadn't been for the warning earlier that there were rogue muds in the area. They all looked terrified, and so it would seem: **guilty!**

"Hey!" he shouted.

One of the mudokons who had been out of sight till now suddenly leapt forward, throwing the liquid contents of a bucket at him. Axle had no doubt that it wouldn't hurt him in any way but instinctively tried to move out of the way, ready to shoot at the mudokon in revenge for its rebellious behavior. This idea immediately left his mind though as panic came rushing in like a tidal wave, drowning out all other thought.

He had _tried_ to move out of the way of whatever the bucket's contents had been, he had tried but he hadn't been fast enough. A lot of it hit his masked face fully, some of it dripped down and splattered over his arm, the rest hit the ground and began to sizzle away at the floor. It was acid.

Axle roared in pain as it began to eat away at his skin. In blind panic he swung around, smashing into the nearest thing to him, trying to escape from the pain. He hit the wooden rails, partly rotten with age, and they gave way easily to his floundering form with a muffled snap.

The next thing Axle knew was that he was drowning, the burning sensation had gone but now he was swallowing mouthfuls of water, which went straight into his lungs. Axle scrambled around for something to hold onto, luckily for him he managed to find the bridge again, and grabbed onto one of the metal support bars. But he couldn't stay like this for long.

Spotting the shore not that far off, he used all the strength possible he had to push away from where he was. He was still in the water of course, but now it was shallow enough for him to reach the bottom with his feet, and with a bit of effort he was back on dry land.

Only one thing blocked him from getting back now, a barbed wire fence. No one was supposed to be down here after all so it had been fenced off. For a moment he froze in shock, the near death experience was new to him, but then came the rage. Axle took one look at the fence and smashed down the nearest pole, then he walked over the top of it, ignoring the little wire still remaining that scratched at his uninjured arm.

Many sligs looked up from where they were lazing around, on in the rare case working, at the furious Big-Bro who came storming through, dark crimson dripping from his face and forearms; everyone was quick to get out of his way, this was someone in a mood who would murder you as soon as look at you, and no one wanted to face his wrath.

Having passed through, the minor but annoying detour of passing through the building again, Axle was back on the bridge, ready to kill the mudokon and its companions as soon as he spotted them. The rafters above him were empty though, when he returned to where he had been stationed when he had fallen in the river there was no sign of the mudokon either. The floor was melted here and the rails broken and gone, this was definitely the place. And floating, out of place, in the river was a bucket, no doubt the one which the mudokon had been holding.

Axle was literally shivering with rage, the damn little bastard things had escaped no doubt, out of the factory and to odd knows where wherever all mudokons went when they escaped.

Axle swore and smashed the nearest rails to him in blind rage. He distantly heard the metal whirring as many sligs came running his way to find out what was going on. He didn't turn around until one of them was right beside him staring confused at the burnt floor, at which point he grabbed the other by the neck, strangling the smaller slig with one hand for no real reason except to take out his anger.

"Freeze!" was the instant chorus that met this action.

Axle turned to face them completely, very slowly, before dropping the random guard he had grabbed by the neck to the ground. Axle looked out at the small crowd gathered in front of him, all rifles trained on his face, all except one. Bas, watched him from behind the rest, with a sort of _'I warned you'_ expression on his face.

Axle wanted nothing more than to murder him right then.

* * *

A/N: Unlike Rookie (who is sneaky and clever) Axle is quite different, not that fast thinking and generally rather serious, never joking around or anything. He's not supposed to be nasty but angers rather easily.

....


	2. Chapter 2: Be Careful

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything. Oddworld (c) to Lorne Lanning and whoever-else-made-it

**Author's Note:** Such a short chaoter......Sorry for the long wait, I can't believe I wrote the first chapter before Christmas. Next chappie will definitely be longer :)

**Chapter 2  
**

**Be Careful  
**

Beth was breathing heavily, she had clearly been running. Running away from something, which was most likely what the racket earlier had been. This was the first time Zeph had ever seen her in this state, and it upset him greatly.

"What happened?" he asked as she neatly slipped into the group unnoticed and began scrubbing the floor.

"I was spotted." She murmured in a way that she doubted would sound suspicious to anyone overhearing.

Zeph's eyes widened but he kept quiet, there was a slig nearby, asleep, but not necessarily a deep sleeper. He had heard the ruckus down at the entrance gate all the way from here, and he somehow knew that Beth had something to do with it. He froze with fear as the sound of a running slig became apparent to them all, but this did not distinguish him from the rest, everyone froze at the sound, including Beth whose eyes darted frantically towards the noise but did not actually move her head to look.

The slig ran right past them though, right to the sleeping one who he promptly shook awake and began to drag away. The sleeping slig got up but refused to be budged.

"What the hell is the idea?!" he barked at the other.

"Some guy's gone psycho down at bridge!"

The other instantly showed more interest and the two ran off without any further questions. Zeph looked over suspiciously at Beth who smirked and shrugged her shoulders, she said nothing, no words were needed, Zeph could easily guess what had happened.

* * *

Axle was completely frozen; his fury was still there but very quickly declining. Axle was the sort of slig who's anger was explosive but never lasted long, it wasn't that he forgave whatever had caused his rage in the first place, no it was the fact that he just forgot about it and didn't see the logic in bothering to recall it. The slig he had almost just strangled had already scrambled away from him, not pausing once as he ran away from the scene.

It surprised Axle in a way that the others had not began shooting, maybe it was because he had actually frozen, but this was unlikely, it was probably more the fact that they were worried they would only invoke his rage if they did something like that. Several guards had already backed out and left, new ones were arriving though but unlike the others they didn't really know what was going on so all that they aimed at him were their suspicious eyes.

Bas had remained calm throughout the whole ordeal, only pushing his way through the group once he was sure they weren't going to shoot the first thing that moved, the arriving sligs helped with this in a way. Bas ignored the rifles which could easily shoot him by accident if the triggered was pulled, he approached Axle but wisely stopped a good few meters away just in case the Big-Bro showed aggression.

"All o' yeh put yeh weapons away!" he barked commandingly, and strangely enough almost every slig obeyed, and began to walk off as if nothing had ever happened. Those that remained quickly left as well once they realized they were alone. Bas looked over at Axle who was still standing where he had been before.

"Yeh mind exactly saying wat in hills name yeh were doing?" he asked the confused Big-Bro, noticing for the first time the nasty gash across his forearm and other injuries he had sustained.

Axle finally moved, lifting his injured arm to inspect the damage, trying to remember exactly when and how he had sustained it. Bas was silent, he was patient, for a slig; but even he eventually grew bored and began to head off.

"Whin yeh switch yeh brain onto 'On', yeh kin come look for me. Whatcha looking at!?" The last sentence was barked at smallish slig still standing where the others had been, they hadn't all gone after all.

In Axle's mind there was little to fear, he was calming down now that there was nothing to be angry or scared of but he now felt immensely frustrated. Meanwhile Bas knew and recognized the small slig immediately as the supervisor, which could mean big trouble in the near future. And there was.

-

But this didn't come to life until half an hour later, and it wasn't only Axle who was in trouble. Called over the megaphone Axle and three other sligs he had never heard of before were summoned to room deep within the complex.

Axle wasn't nervous, he had no reason to be, he didn't know what was going on, to him it could simply be routine. The three others though were shuffling around anxiously, waiting to be let through but wishing nothing more than not to be there. Eventually they were all called in.

Three vykkers stood up upon a platform, they seemed very irritated, they didn't want to be here anymore than the sligs did, but they had to follow the boss's orders just like everyone else did. They barely glanced down at the summoned sligs who marched into the room, more content to talk amongst themselves about the guards' fate.

"It's financial loss, if they are fired."

"They must be punished. This is the fifth time this month that slaves have gone missing! This behavior must not be tolerated!"

"We'll lose just as much money if we don't get rid of them!"

"They're just sligs, they are all the same; it would make no difference!"

"And that big one, its kind is supposed to be stupid. It's part of the make!"

"One of them damaged company property. I hear the Northern Bridge is now in need of repair."

"Well they must still be punished or others will get the idea that they can do the same!"

"Well then it is quite obvious what we must do."

"De-promote the lot!"

-

Truth be told Axle hadn't really understood a word the vykkers had said, they spoke too fast for him to bother following, they obviously weren't talking to him anyway so he had ignored them, but the last sentence had hit him hard. The others didn't seem too bothered, or at least not bothered enough to go stampeding down hall as soon as they were out of the room.

It was only the fear of being fired completely that kept him from tearing the arm off of the vykker at the medical bay, Axle had been ordered to have his wounds tended to, stitches were even needed on some.

* * *

Beth was growing irritated, the sun was not even up yet and the bell was not to ring for at least another hour but she had awoken and found herself unable to sleep, she had quickly found out though it wasn't just her; Zeph was staring at her from the opposite bunk, worry printed into his face.

Beth narrowed her eyes and stuck her tongue out in annoyance. But Zeph's look of worry only increased.

"What?" she hissed quietly.

"You."

"Me what?"

"Please be careful."

"I always am."

"Be careful."

Beth sighed silently and closed her eyes, hoping that he would get the message and go back to sleep. Zeph had always been like this, when she had first 'adopted' him, taken him under her wing when she had seen that he was nothing but a lost youngling like herself. He had been so small, too young to be even considered able to work, but no one cared for how a mudokon fared as long as it worked hard. He had always been nervous, clingy and in need of attention. If he was alone he quickly panicked, though he had grown out of this slightly by now. But he was a constant worrier, worrying about everything, especially her since she risked her life so often.

She hadn't yet had the chance to fully explain what had happened the day before to Zeph, so he still thought a guard had actually seen her and was worrying more than ever. Well technically she had been spotted, but she doubted the spotter was even still alive, and anyway it would have been too dark for the slig to see her well enough to recognise her later on. The reason she said nothing to Zeph now was because she wasn't sure whether all the other mudokons were actually asleep, and they weren't there were always those who turned traitor in hope of being rewarded, deluded those were for they never would be, just told they had done the right thing and then lived on with the guilt that it had been their fault a fellow mudokon had died (if they weren't killed off by revengeful friends by then though).

Beth opened an eye. Zeph was still watching her.

"Look, I'm always careful. I won't ever leave you Zeph. Ever. I promise" she smiled. "Now go to sleep, we'll resume this conversation later."

* * *

"Bad luck." stated Cutter upon hearing the news the next day during lunch-break, but he sounded all but sad at Axle's loss of rank. "You're lucky they didn't fire you, no one knows what happened to the last employee who got fired. Rumors are that he never even left the building, either that the vykkers killed him or he is still running around in the shadows, just waiting to take out his revenge on those luckier than himself."

"Aww shut up." barked Troy, whom was finally known as such after a full week of being seemingly nameless to Axle.

Troy was generally silent but when he spoke it was normally aggressive. Cutter tended to be very talkative, but in the annoying way; as a result Troy and Cutter did not get along that well. Bas currently wasn't in the area, since he had taken it upon himself to take guard duty during the lunch-break (but it was more likely it had been against his will, Bas was notoriously lazy), Dez was also absent but this was because he was up at the medical wing.

Apparently Dez had decided to take an early break when he had heard the ruckus breaking out the day before, and had ran into trouble by accident when some idiot had rushed at him with a knife, apparently mistaking him for someone else. Either way Dez had not taken kindly to this treatement and had dealt his attacker a punch in the face, as well as a few kicks, before having to stagger off by himself up to the fourth floor to get medical attention.

If the others were concerned, they weren't showing it, the news of Dez's injury had came from Cutter who had been nearby when the accident had happened; the trouble maker, who had been coming to by then from the beating he had recieved from Dez, re-awoke only to beaten again. Caring friendship amongst industrial sligs rarely occurred because it was deemed unnecessary, so some would have said that Cutter putting the other attacking slig in the emergency ward was just using the excuse that he was friends with Dez; truthfully though it was both.

Axle ignored them all, still sulking. He had wanted a high rank all his life, and now finally when he had had a good grip on the possible chance, it had been torn away from him completely; plus the stitches hurt and the mask he had been given kept rubbing against where the acid had eaten into his skin.

"Cheer up." said Cutter, hitting him on the shoulder, and barely reaching. "It could be a lot worse."

Axle looked at him. "How?"

"Well you could look like Troy." and he broke out into snorts of laughter, however neither of the other two found the comment humorous. "Well face it." he continued. "It can't really be that bad."

It was worse.

The minute Axle stepped into massive glass ceiling arena-like room he could tell he was with the lowest of the low. Not one slig before him carried a gun nor wore a single eyed mask, many were obviously very new to the job and were standing around attentively as if there was actually a need to do so in a place such as where they were. Some were so old they could barely stand (not that most of these sligs were though, they had worked here long enough to know there wasn't much of a point).

It was humiliating, he did not fit in, he stuck out like vykker in a herd of meep. He was elite, the best guard material around, he did not belong here.

* * *

-

**A/N: **Just wanted to say there **_is_** a reason for Bas's strange way of speaking apart from the fact that I just like messing around with the way my characters talk, this will be revealed eventually.

....


	3. Chapter 3: To Bother the Botherer

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything. Oddworld (c) to Lorne Lanning and whoever-else-made-it

**Author's Note: **Such a long wait...well I'm apologise profusely. This chapter isn't as long as I would have liked it but if I stayed off any longer then I might as well put this story on hold. So here's another chapter. It's a bit choppy and some of it was hastily written but I will take care of this in the future:)**  
**

**Chapter 3  
**

**Bother the Botherer  
**

It was with great relief that when the sun finally went down that Axle was no longer needed in the complex, and he couldn't get away from the place fast enough. He went the usual route, to find the others after they had finished their own shifts. An idea had been forming in his brain, through the long dreary day it had occurred to him that, being the only Big-Bro in the complex, that maybe the punishment of this low job was only temporary, they would probably let him back as soon as seven days passed, after all it was a waste to keep him in such a lowly job, right?

But as Axle came into café he became aware that this idea was just as faint as he had originally thought it would be, for in the place of the usual array of sligs were a massive collections of fellow Big-Bros. For a moment Axle wondered whether or not he had just accidentally walked into the wrong room, then he remembered there were no other lunch bars and that he had not just randomly teleported into another building.

Once he had forgotten his idea for its uselessness, he just went the way he usually did. He didn't think much of the new sligs as he went in search of something to eat, until he realized through observation that none of the others were there, just these new replacements. Replacements?

Had everyone else been fired?

They hadn't, as Axle discovered later than evening after he had eaten, he also learnt that he wasn't supposed to have eaten, that was for the high ranking new guards, he and the others had all had their break shifted to an even later time, resulting in an even longer working hours. Dez was back, a large amount of bandages around his middle, and he looked even paler than he did usually. Everyone was there, including a new twitchy little armoured slig Bas had brought alone that Axle didn't know, called a rather unfortunate name for someone of his rank, Bhos, pronounced: Boss. Cutter had initially laughed over this for almost an hour, scaring the nearby mudokons and annoying everyone else in the vicinity.

Cutter and Troy were fretting over the possibility of the newly employed 'super sligs', very unusual for the two of them since they never talked to each other without one or the other not bothering to respond, nor did either character generally ever show unease.

"There's talk of the "lower casts" being fired, and that they won't be needing us anymore." Dez told Axle. Bas scoffed.

"Der's noting tuh wurry abot."

"There wouldn't be, for you. You have the highest rank of all of us, basically you are the same as the new ones."

Bhos had taken an interest in the floor, shy sligs were rare, so were ones that wore armor, Axle was sure he would have spotted him before if he had been here, but he hadn't.

"But they're still hiring new sligs." he stated, pointing at Bhos. "I haven't seen you before."

Bhos said something very quietly and glanced over at Bas.

"He's bin 'ere for years, he only git the armor the oder day, traded it off someone who weren't using it."

Bhos now looked proudly over at Axle, answer explained, but Cutter was listening in and had a different question.

"I ain't ever heard of anyone called Bhos, how come you never told us about him before?"

"Only met 'im yesterday. During lunch-hour guard duty." said Bas.

The matter was left at that and they all departed on their own routes back to the barracks, Axle wandering away from the rest because of the fact that where he slept was in a different sector. He was feeling somewhat depressed now, and edgy, he knew his job was hanging in the balance and if he didn't sort this out soon he could face unemployment; and everyone knew an unemployed slig was a doomed slig, no one would take him with his record.

He saw them before they saw him, a large-ish group of mudokons were suspiciously moving along together in the shadows. All but one froze upon spotting him, they were so much smaller than him but in such a big group they could have possibly pose a threat, not that for one second did this thought cross Axle's mind though, he was still in his own world of suffering. He snarled.

"Get out of here before I kill the lot of you!" he bellowed, and to his satisfaction they scattered.

* * *

Since no one bothered to check, and he looked just like the rest of them, Axle turned up at the secondary lunch again, Bas having advised him it wasn't likely to cost him anything. He didn't necessarily eat or drink anything, but as long as he was there he didn't have to back with those unbearable lowlifes. He met with others again like he did every day, but there was depression this time, and in the least expected person.

Cutter was refusing to speak to anyone, just sitting still and staring into his drink; Troy had been fired.

"It's like he said, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going." said Dez trying to comfort Cutter, Bas coughed and looked at him indignantly.

"Troy never said dat."

"Well no, but it sounds like him."

"He barely ever said a word."

Cutter remained depressed for the rest of the day and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

* * *

Axle returned to his post and went to sleep, it seemed the other sligs working there thought he was there to supervise them and as a result they avoided him like plague, he didn't really care though. Bas visited several hours later, being on an hour break, or simply being there when he wasn't supposed to be. After exclaiming and agreeing upon the fact that the place he worked at looked like a complete dump, Bas told him that Cutter was thinking of resigning.

"Why would he want to do that?" The very thought of it was ludicrous.

Bas shrugged and suddenly looked very cautious, glancing around to check no one was listening in.

"You know the vykkers can't tell the difference between one slig and another right? Just like we can't tell the difference between one mudokon and the next. If you, say, took the identity of one of the new sligs coming in. Then you wouldn't have to be down here all the time." These were the clearest words Bas had ever said, albeit whispered, it would have made Axle suspicious if he had cared, so it was ignored.

"I don't know if that would work." He said, but aloud, not whispered.

Bas flicked a hand as if it didn't really matter, but didn't leave. Later after Axle's shift had finished, and since Bas was still hanging around, the two made their way towards the usual bar.

On the way though a mudokon suddenly came hurtling out of nowhere, crashed into Bas, knocked him over and falling over in the process; the mudokon stood up immediately and glanced down to see what it had crashed into. It had obviously been accidental but with every reason to cause an aggravated response from Bas or any other slig who had been in the same situation, but Bas made no response whatsoever. The mudokon then caught sight of Axle, paled, and moved off swiftly. Bas rolled onto his back and leapt up but this swift move was the only he showed, before he carried on like nothing had happened.

Axle decided he didn't like this disregard, and already grumpy from standing around all day doing nothing, he charged after the mud in question; Bas didn't follow. The mudokon was fast and Axle, with his four legged metal design wasn't and so was quickly being left behind, especially since the mudokon had noticed him, and had broke into a run. Axle turned a corner and suddenly faced with not one mudokon but what must have been a hundred. Their eyes all nervously swiveling to stare at him and despite their fear this was the first time Axle actually felt nervous, there were so many mudokons and not a single slig in sight. Very slowly he backed out again, and went back the way he had came. In the corridor he was abruptly halted when he almost crashed into another like himself.

The other Big-Bro said nothing, then swiftly delivered a punch.

* * *

It really wasn't that unexpected when Beth realized that Zeph wasn't anywhere nearby, it seemed he had fallen behind again; maybe chosen to simply return to where the "superiors" expected him to be. But missing, and no where in sight Beth decided to find him, just to make sure. She backtracked through the shadows, keeping an eye out for security cameras, not that they would be able to really see anything unusual about a mudokon walking past as if on the job, or even be able to pick her out amongst the dark. She passed a Big-Bro on the way, seemingly standing around without any reason but to intimidate others; though it was probably on guard duty. She didn't like these new sligs, hideous hulking great things. At first there had only been one, now there seemed to be an unlimited amount of them throughout the complex. What she had seen and heard of them it appeared they didn't take to beating slaves regularly as their smaller cousins might do, probably because they would kill them, prefering to fight amongst their own kind. They were not very clever, quite slow moving and highly aggressive.

She spotted him, hurrying along very quickly, too quickly. She saw two sligs emerge through a sliding door and then Zeph as he failed to halt himself in time. He stumbled and crashed into the smaller of the two. Both went flying. Beth bit her lip and watched nervously. Zeph just got up and stared stupidly at the downed slig for a moment, then noticed the larger one and stupidly fled. She would have sighed in relief when she noticed it was just Bas who Zeph had knocked over, she would have thought the other larger slig would simply have laughed and moved on and the incident would be forgotten. Unfortunately though, while Bas didn't react at all, the larger slig sped after Zeph without warning.

Beth panicked. She wasn't sure what to do, if she ran after her brother she would get them both in trouble, nor save Zeph in any way. Beth was suddenly struck by a brilliant idea, almost hitting herself on the head for not doing it sooner, after all, this was not the first time she had done something like this.

She backtracked to where she had seen the other Big-Bro, where she made her presence known by nervoursly shuffling her feet against the ground. The great beast of thing looked over at her and glared. "What?" It bellowed.

She looked at the ground then back up again. "I don't wanna say, you'll be angry." She said nervously, but it was all acting, Beth was an expert at this.

"Angry?"

"That Big-Bro...ba-back there, t-told me to tell you tha-that he thinks y-you look stu-stu-pid."

The Big-Bro growled and stook a step forward, Beth knew this was the dangerous part, if the Big-Bro was stupid enough he would believe her wouldn't bother sticking around, but if the Big-Bro was too stupid he would think that it was she saying what she was saying and beat her. Luckily it was the first.

Cursing, the monstrosity tore down the way she had indicated, muttering something about how he had known they were being rude about him. Beth grinned maniacally within her mind but truthfully she was worried. Hopefully the other Big-Bro would catch up with the first before he had time to reach Zeph, but this couldn't be guaranteed. This factory had never been safe place for mudokons, no factory had ever been safe for them. She knew that maybe one sad day she probably wouldn't be there to help her brother, and that maybe she would lose him. She didn't want him here anymore, but he refused to leave.

* * *

A/N: I'm gonna be honest, I doubt the next chapter will be up for a while, but I'll try to get it done faster than this one :)


	4. Chapter 4: Repetition, Repetition

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything. Oddworld (c) to Lorne Lanning and whoever-else-made-it

**Author's Note: **OH MY GOD! It's the fourth chapter of Hiding! Updates for all my stories are going very slow at the minute but the third term holidays are coming up and hopefully I'll be able to update a little quicker. I've taken down Running temporarily as it doesn't correspond correctly with Hiding.

I'm going to be focusing on this story in particular until I've finished it as all this sporadical updates are annoying for everyone.

**Chapter 4**

**Repetition, Repetition**

There was a great commotion down the hall, Bas heard it but didn't think much about it, continuing on as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile Beth also heard it, and grinned, she hurried to check on Zeph but then as she got closer she realized it was too dangerous to be able to get past. One careless swing from the brawling behemoths and she would be pulverized. Zeph was no where in sight, he must have gotten back to the dormitories, but in one piece was still the question. She realized it was futile just to stand around, and if someone saw her she would appear suspicious.

Sighing quietly she turned around and began heading towards her designated sector. Others looked up at her as she joined them silently, but they remained quiet and returned to work. She began to work with them, it was kind of calming in a manner, no sound but the deep rumbling of a distant engine, or was it a boiler? Beth decided to find out next time she went in the sound's direction, the information could be important for future reference. There was only one guard as well, one who had chosen to lie down as far away as possible from them and had fallen asleep. It surprised Beth that no one was talking, maybe it was because they had heard the commotion as well and knew there was danger nearby. After all everyone was terrified of the new Big-Bro sligs.

Everything was so quiet in fact that she could hear her own breathing, and that of everyone around her, above her. Beth's gaze shot upwards towards the airlock grating, two large eyes were staring pleadingly out at her. Beth pretended to be looking at the ceiling, allowing her gaze to fall slowly back down a wall and onto the floor, so that anyone watching would not suspect a thing.

_Please go away!_ She said in her mind. _Are you stupid or something? Please go away!_

Scrunch-scrunch-squeak.

Someone was coming their way. Beth was greatly relieved when she realized it was Zeph, and apart from looking a little petrified, he was completely unharmed. She wanted to ask him a million questions, but for once she was quiet because the slig guard was showing signs of waking. Zeph grabbed a nearby piece of cloth and began to help clean the wall everyone else was attending too. The guard's mask flickered and a red line of light appeared above where his eyes would be, he was definitely awake now. Beth felt her worry for the one in the air vent triple as the guard leapt up and began to look around, almost as if he knew something was amiss.

Something was amiss, but it actually had nothing to do with Beth. If Beth had been in the slig's mind then she would have known that he had overslept and his shift was long since over, but despite this his replacement was still nowhere in sight. Looking around furiously for a few more minutes, walking impatiently up and down the hall several times, the slig eventually snarled and left without looking back once. The replacement was still no where in sight.

Beth risked looking up at the air vent again, but only very quickly, she couldn't let anyone know, not even her fellow mudokons. The only person who knew apart from her about it was Zeph, he was the only person she had told about Bark. But Bark was gone, gone from view anyway, Bark was still so young, he didn't really know what safe even was, but he was smart, Beth could give him that; but this had been too much for her, Bark was never supposed to appear when other people were around.

But other things first.

"Zeph are you okay?" she asked urgently.

"If by okay you mean physically then I'm fine, I've never felt more scared in my life!" Zeph said quietly.

"What exactly happened?"

"I was running, I accidently knocked over that slig...err...the one with the armour, don't remember his name, and he was with this big slig with bandages all wrapped around his face. I headed back towards the dormitories and realized the big slig was chasing me, he was going to kill me!"

"How did you escape?" asked a nearby mudokon whom neither had ever met before.

"Hey, this isn't tell-a-story day, my poor brother was actually chased by a monster." Beth hissed at the other, Zeph didn't seem to mind though.

"I ran away. The big sligs are actually quite slow. Did you hear what happened in the hall though? Sounded like a storm hit! I didn't dare come out until it stopped."

Beth's mischievous grin went unnoticed by Zeph. Zeph appeared to be interested in starting a conversation with the other mudokon who had been interested in his tale, but knew there were more important things at stake right now and she pulled him away so that only he could hear her whisper:

"_Bark was here. Check on him."_

Then, no longer whispering she continued: "If you can."

Zeph sighed in annoyance but nodded.

* * *

This was so uncomfortable, was all that was going through Axle's mind right now. Pain...It was mild pain, almost just discomfort but it was uncomfortable nonetheless.

There was no confusion though, unlike there would have been normally. Axle didn't even think about why the other had attacked him, all he cared about was the fact that the other _had _and that was all that mattered to him. He was searching for Bas, who had obviously not waited for him to return after he had been knocked over. Axle had already been to the medical bay, as he knew was required to make sure he was going to live, not that his injuries were anything serious. The vykkers working there were obviously not pleased, they recognised him from before and didn't like the fact that he had returned so quickly.

After being told he was fine, despite the dark markings that had began to appear along one of his arms and shoulder, it was just bruising and it would go away with time, Axle was allowed to leave. The other big-bro who had been in the fight did not even turn up at the bay, he was probably still lying unconscious where the fight had taken place.

And in trying to find Bas, Axle ran into the last person he was expecting to see. Troy, Troy who was supposedly fired, came trotting over to greet him.

"There you are! The whole gang has been looking for you, where did you go?"

Axle was silent for a moment, trying to comprehend how Troy was here when he wasn't supposed to be here. Finally he said.

"But you were fired..."

Troy snorted, obviously annoyed about something. "I weren't fired so much as I was locked in cupboard for over 24 hours. Believe me, it wasn't fun. Some mud closed the door on me on purpose, but if I knew who they were..." Troy shook a fist and then fell back into his characteristic silence and began to head off, making a gesture for Axle to follow after him.

Bas and the other two were already in the cafeteria, obviously not still searching _everywhere_ for him. Axle was pleased to note that Cutter seemed to be in better mood than the earlier, because depressed Cutter was confusing Cutter, and Axle didn't like things that confused him. The others apparently already knew that Troy wasn't fired because they didn't react at all, well apart from Cutter who was unable to stop himself from laughing once he caught sight of Troy, but it was not that he was overcome with joy but rather the fact that he had just been reminded where Troy had been for the past day.

Axle noticed Bhos, the small slig he had met two days before, was not with the group. He asked. Bas promptly replied he was dead. And that was the end of that matter. The cafeteria seemed fuller than usual, it took him a while to realize that a majority of the Big-bros were present as well.

"Yep, the vykkers have been making all these new silly rules to make the company more efficient or something." Cutter said. "They're going to announce what else had changed soon too, but who knows when. What happened to your arm?"

Axle could almost feel the gazes of the other swivel over to look at him, obviously they must have already noticed, it was impossible not to, but they had obviously just not bothered asking, but whether out of respect or laziness was a question not worth answering.

"I got into a fight."

"Why?"

Axle shrugged.

"But there must have been a reason, tell us of your heroic battle, oh great warrior!" said Cutter jokingly. "Didn't you fight only last week? You still have that bandage around your face."

"That wasn't a fight, that was an accident." replied Axle, but he was unsure how to classify the incident.

"Were yer attacked for no reason?" asked Bas, speaking up so as to heard over the din of the cafeteria.

"Yes, it was just after that mudokon knocked you over."

Now the focus of attention was Bas, Troy particularly seemed to be interested in the answer Bas would have to give. Bas looked very uncomfortable, though it was hard to tell, barely any of him could actually be seen with all the armour.

"You're telling me _you_ were knocked over by a careless mud and you just let it pass?" asked Dez incredulously.

"Axle went af'er de lil bastard de sekin I fell down. Why boder?"

Satisfied for the time being the others resumed their drinking and chatting, no one noticed the grumpy looking mudokon who had just come into the cafeteria with a broom and dustpan, and normally it wouldn't have mattered; since they had been sitting there at least three other mudokons going about their business had come and gone. But this was Beth. This shouldn't have mattered too much either if she hadn't passed by their table on her way, and recognised Axle. It was a very unlucky miracle that she did in fact recognise him, but the bandaged face was a dead giveaway, and she instantly knew it was the very same slig who had almost caught her escaping group the week before, the same slig who had chased after her brother with murderous intent only hours before.

No one, not even Bas, who was the most observant of the group, noticed the mudokon as it suddenly changed directions for no apparent reason and disappeared. It was only around a minute later though, that a Big-bro of unknown identity suddenly came flying out of the crowd at them that they paid any attention to their surroundings whatsoever. The smaller sligs instantly scattered, diving under tables or anything that offered the remote possibility of protection from the fight that was about to occur.

* * *

"Well that was certainly unexpected." stated Dez as they left the cafeteria behind. Axle was still trembling with the unexpectedness of the fight, no one had tried talking to him since no one knew whether he was shivering with adrenaline or just pure rage. Bas, Dez and Troy had successfully made it out, Cutter was no where in sight but according to Bas he had ran away the second the fight had started.

Troy muttered that he was going back to the barracks for the night, Dez followed after him, mentioning he was also going to go searching for cowardly Cutter. Bas would have left as well at that point with a genuine farewell and left content if it hadn't for the fact that at that moment yet another enraged Big-bro came tearing down the hall after them.

Bas departed immediately without a word uttered.

But half way back to the barracks Bas suddenly changed directions, there was a reason for this too, it was not that a streak of illogical bravery had come out of nowhere all of a sudden but rather a realization of similarities and patterns, what the reason behind it all had to be. Bas found her not far from cafeteria, as expected she was not far from the scene of her latest crime, she had jsut succesfully cleared the cafeteria of other mudokons as the sligs within the cafeteria were on edge due to the recent fight and some of the more unstable ones were completely unpredictable.

She was alone, which was for the best on this occasion. It would have been hard to confront her if others had been around.

"What had you got against Axle?" Bas asked, voice much clearer and higher than usual, accent and rough tone completely gone.

Beth turned, startled. But she quickly relaxed once she realized who it was, in fact she cared so little she decided to ignore Bas completely.

"Don't you ignore me, I know it was you, I have very good reason to report you."

Beth suddenly turned and began heading back towards Bas, her face as impassive as ever but her posture had changed and her fists had balled.

"You have no proof." she stated. "Besides I have no idea who Axle is." But by the tone in her voice this was obviously false, it wasn't hard for her to guess who Bas was talking about.

"I don't need to bother with you, so I ask you again, what's your problem with Axle? I ask out of curiosity rather than anything else."

Beth glanced around to make sure it wasn't some sort of trap, giving herself time to ponder whether or not it was safe to answer.

"It doesn't matter." she replied.

"He was after your brother wasn't he?"

"How would you know?"

"I was there."

"I know."

The two were silent, both trying out stare the other, but it was impossible, neither was going to back down. Beth spoke first.

"You know what will happen if you tell on me, don't you? You know what I'll make _sure_ happens to you?"

Bas shifted stance and glared. "I got rid of the last person who tried to speak. Who says I won't do the same to you?"

"Says the fact that you don't know who knows what. I'm not alone you know, who says I don't pass on, or already have passed on the message. What are you going to do then? Kill every slave in this factory? Don't you think that will look a bit suspicious?"

Bas finally backed down, defeated for now. "Just leave Axle alone. He didn't go after your brother intentionally, he doesn't even know who your brother is. He's stupid and tends to act before thinking, he couldn't pose a threat to anyone."

"Didn't you see what happened to that slig that I tric-...that I saw him brawling with in the cafeteria? Still don't think he's a threat? Besides no one tries to harm my brother, and it doesn't make it any different if they don't know who he is. Do you know what it's like to be me, having to live in constant fear of discovery? "

"You know very well that I know exactly what you're talking about. I live through it every day."

* * *

That evening there was no wailing of an alarm nor warning red lights but that did not mean the pack of some dozen mudokons, some having only been imported into the factory the week before, escaped out of the factory and into the wilderness unnoticed. But the problem was: no one actually noticed until long after mudokons had long since gone.

The vykkers were not happy, in fact they were furious. It was even rumoured amongst the guards that one had been so furious he had thrown another out the window, but whether this was true or not was a topic of major debate. GlassGlows Inc. had been losing workers left and right for around a year or more now and they were getting sick of it. This was not to mention how badly the guards had been fairing, turning up late for their shifts and falling asleep on a seemingly continuous basis. Few things were working, there was a crack in the work chain, and when a chain is broken it loses its use.

GlassGlows itself was doing quite well as a business. It was one of the largest, not to mention one of very few glass making companies in this part of Eastern Mudos but as time passed it was getting harder and harder to keep it this way. The hard truth was: the factory was not productive enough for the building demand, and the vykkers wanted to change this. Everyone was always happy if there was a little extra moolah, and apart from the small flourishing side business that the factory also took part in, though there was no record of it anywhere, and this was best not mentioned, the factory workings were not the best, all the equipment was out of date and old, some of it was falling apart, many of the security cameras were malfunctioning. Something had to be done, and it was going to be.

Changes had already been put into affect, such as the shipment of new updated guards from vykker labs to eventually replace the ones currently working there. There were still problems that needed to be sorted though, the new guards were stupid and even more ill suited to keeping the working enviroment of the factory stable as they were more far more aggressive than their smaller relations. The employment of Interns was high on most of the vykkers' minds but whether, and if this occurred, would they replace all the guards? The answer was no, the Interns employed would be few as employment wages were higher with Interns than they were with sligs and they were not generally considered the best of guards either, though far less likely to fight, if at all, they were not as alert due to the common insistence on wearing headphones at all times.

The vykkers announced that day, to the entire factory, of this great change to come, but apart from the vykkers themselves, everyone else could only groan mentally at the prospect.


	5. Chapter 5: To Know

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything. Oddworld (c) to Lorne Lanning and whoever-else-made-it

**Author's Note: **Next chapter already partly done, due to come out on the 25th December but this may vary due to serious writer's block.

Happy xmas! :)

**Chapter 5**

**To know**

This was just depressing.

Axle was bored, not tired. In fact he was so bored he was finding it impossible to fall asleep. Things were only made worse by the fact that he was hurting. Bruises of multiple sizes had appeared all along both arms and almost any part of exposed skin from the multiple unexpected attacks from various people he had never even set eyes on before.

It had been over a week since these spontaneous attacks had begun, and Axle wasn't liking it one bit. Axle had nothing against brawling, in fact it was quite a common and normal occurrence back from where he had came from, but it was never so personal that it couldn't be avoided. He didn't understand why it was happening.

The bell rang, end of shift.

This was one of the new updates installed this week. Time reading was no longer totally necessary as there were alarms now to warn the guards when they were suppose to be moving. Axle liked this update, it made things a lot simpler; and Axle liked simple.

Some mudokons were coming in to take over the last shifts. None of the mudokons seemed particularly interesting in any way that would have made him give them a second glance, to Axle mudokons never had been interesting, they just existed and he accepted that. But as they passed one mudokon looked up and noticed him, it stared…then smirked, before quickly looking away.

The change of expressions was over so quick Axle almost didn't see it. It made him feel agitated, all mudokons looked alike at first glance but now that Axle thought about it the mudokon did seem familiar. Axle shook it off though and headed out.

As expected Bas was awaiting him. Bas worked at a different sector but had to pass by the same way out, Troy, Cutter and Dez worked at the other end of the factory and normally met them up at the cafeteria rather than bothering to go searching for them.

Bas exclaimed audibly as Axle walked up over to him.

"Yeh lookin reel beat up." he said almost sounding concerned, but not overly emotional because this would have been considered a sign of weakness, and slig guards never showed weakness.

Axle just grunted as if to say nothing, it wasn't nothing though, and Axle was feeling downright miserable.

"Sumtin haz to be din abort dis." Bas said, speaking more to himself than Axle. Axle just stared blankly, and after a moment of silence in which he realized Bas wasn't going to say anything, he turned around and began to walk ahead, taking the lead. Bas hurried after him, capable of running faster but his walking pace was not the same.

"I reely shoodn't be tellin yeh dis but…" Bas said once he was sure there was no one near enough to overhear, he was then silent a moment as if pondering, but he had caught Axle's attention.

"I think I no who's bin boderin yeh. I just don't no...Rimimber I told yeh abort a mud called Beth when yers first came 'ere? Well…I tink she's bin tellin lies. But yeh didn't 'ear this from me, okay?"

_That smirk..._

Axle may have not been a smart slig, but he was still capable of putting two and two together, he didn't even need a reason or to know how, he just needed to accept a concept; but Bas didn't know this.

"It was 'er broder yeh wint after a week ago. And she don't like sligs in general eider, so dat really don't 'elp."

* * *

Axle felt paranoid during the time whenever he was in the cafeteria, he was expecting an attack, fortunately today was one of the days where Beth, if it was the mud, hadn't had the time to set up an incident and nothing happened; but this only left Axle more on edge, waiting for an attack and he wasn't sure when or where it would happen. This worry influenced Axle's mind, to the point that everything that moved was a potential threat. This attitude change did not go unnoticed by Bas, who seemed to sense the potential threat posed by Axle and quickly made sure the others had left before he himself bid farewell to the temperamental big-bro and left.

Axle was feeling very confused and annoyed. Normally he did not hold onto emotions for long, normally he was incapable of doing so, he simply forgot how he was feeling and then forgot that he forgot and life went on. He could not understand why he was unable to keep himself under control right now, he had been ambushed and randomly attacked for over a week now and it was rubbing off on his state of mind.

On his way back to his shift he caught sight of a pale arm, it was too dark for him to see clearly but he knew someone was following after another big-bro like himself. Neither were talking so it he assumed that the followed didn't know he was being followed. It was Beth about to trick another! He immediately acted without thinking, he charged the smaller figure, his heartbeat pounding in his ears, stopping him from hearing anything but his own rage. He grabbed the smaller figure by the throat and lifted them bodily into the air with a roar. The other big-bro turned around in surprise but only laughed at the sight of Axle crushing the breath out of a fellow slig; for that was what he had charged, not even one mud was remotely nearby.

The smaller slig scrabbled at his hand, and it was only once he heard the clank of metal, as the smaller slig was no longer able to hold onto his metal pants that he realized he was not strangling Beth, or even a mudokon, but a fellow slig, and not just any slig but the supervisor.

Axle immediately relinquished his hold on the other, but it was already too late in a sense. The supervisor lay on the ground where he had been dropped for several seconds, then quickly scrambled back up and climbed back into his metal pants and scurried off. This gave Axle too little time to come up with a plan, he could have tried intimidating the little slig into being silent but it was doubtful that a slig like the one he had just upset would care and with his rank and power of authority he was unlikely to get any backlash.

Axle quickly left soon after, hoping that the incident would be forgotten.

It wasn't.

He was called to the office, and unlike the time before it was only him who was called, and most unfortunately for him, the vykkers recognised him.

"You do realize assaulting a superior for no apparent reason is completely inappropriate?" One said shrilly. It was the same three vykkers as the time before and they were not pleased.

Like expected, the supervisor had gone to them immediately to report the incident, and this may not have been as bad as it was if they hadn't recognised him as well as the fact that over the past week they had heard a lot of talk about a trouble making big-bro; there had been no complaints but they had heard of it nonetheless. The brawls had meant that some sligs had been unable to reach their shifts, that there had been damage made to company property and that the company's only doctor had been a lot busier than normal; which the vykekr had personally not liked.

Axle could do little more than stand there, well aware that if he said something then he could actually worsen the situation.

"You appear to be quite the brawler, I see." Said another vykker, motioning towards the obviously beaten Axle. That was another thing, it was possible that they guessed he was the "trouble maker" because of his beaten up physique, and that they weren't simply trying to put the blame on someone to rid themselves of their annoyance. "It's a pity really, you'd make a fine guard if you were not so uncontrolled, must be some fault in your genetics, too aggressive. I suppose it can't be helped."

"He's already at the lowest rank there is." Read the third vykker who was typing away at a console screen. "The only punishment left I can see would be to fire him, either that or we ignore this occasion and just dock his pay for week or two."

"Ah, just dock his pay, I've got a meeting with the heads of Vykker Pharmaceuticals later today and I cannot be bothered to deal with all the paperwork of firing him."

And it was left at that.

* * *

Axle trudged along the empty halls, everyone either taking their daily shifts or having a quick lunch break in the cafeteria. Axle only had one thing on his mind though; the trouble making mudokon Beth. He was going to put a stop to this, but he wasn't sure how. Axle had fought many times in his life but he had never killed, but he supposed it might be the only way to deal with the mudokon. And then as almost as if haunted by a ghost Axle imagined Bas talking to him, and Bas said:

"Dat ain't gonna sit well wit yur record."

If Axle killed a mudokon just after being reported for violent attacks against the other guards then the whole thing could easily backfire on him. But then again Axle had so little left now he wasn't sure if he could actually lose anything more. But either way, if Axle lost his job here then he would be done for, it had only been through extreme luck that he had managed to be transferred here.

His record was no doubt completely mauled by now, if any one considered hiring him after he lost this job they would just take one look at his record and think he was an extremely aggressive and uncontrollable monster, this normally didn't sit well with most companies, especially since it was often the sligs who checked the records; and they certainly wouldn't want any more potential danger around their work places.

He caught sight of his first mudokon, who also saw him and began to walk away very fast in the opposite direction immediately, nearing the mudokon dormitories. Axle wasn't sure where Beth would be, but he figured that someone here was bound to know, getting them to speak wouldn't be that hard considering general mudokon cowardice. Axle now knew he needed to find a mudokon to question, if he had been a bit smarter Axle might have gone into the dormitories and lied, saying that a mudokon was needed somewhere. But Axle wasn't that smart, so he waited around as he remembered the last time he had charged in there he had felt more than humiliatingly intimidated; unfortunately though the first mudokon that he had seen had seemingly warned the others because no one came out from the dormitories again afterwards.

Axle's wait would have been in vain if it hadn't been that some unlucky mudokon was heading back just then and did not know that there was an angry big-bro in the area.

"You!" he barked, causing the mudokon to jump about its own height in fright. "Where's the mud known as Beth?"

The mudokon shakily tried to shrug, it didn't do well to be informal with sligs when you were a mud but this particular one couldn't think of a better way to express what he didn't know. Seeing the massive slig stomping over to him though, the mudokon tried to add a little extra in hope of saving its own life.

"She could be working her shift up in sector B4, or maybe at the cafeteria, I don't know her that well, sir."

Axle stopped advancing and snarled, this was not helping, by the time he had found her it would probably be time for him to head back to guard duty and his absence would no doubt not go unnoticed. Axle turned and stormed off without the faintest idea what he was going to do next.

The mudokon watched him until he was out of sight then hurried into the dormitories, still trembling from the encounter. He knew that Beth wasn't here, he had seen her head out earlier but he really didn't know where to. He spotted Zephyr, generally known just as Zeph, searching for a cupboard for a new mop and bucket. As well as serving as a mudokon dormitory this room, of course, also served as a store cupboard for cleaning equipment and excess stock products.

"Zeph!" the mudokon called out, instantly getting the other's attention who had been losing a battle against a mop that had somehow become wedged into a shelf. "I was just questioned by this big-bro who was waiting outside, he said he was looking for Beth!"

Zeph's eyes widened in horror.

"Oh no, Beth what have you gotten yourself into?" Zeph mumbled under his breath as he hurried out, hoping that he would get to his sister before the monster did.

* * *

Axle took a detour, he hadn't been expecting to find anyone or anything this way, he just wanted to be alone until he could face his problems again. His humiliation, no doubt the knowledge that he had almost strangled the supervisor would have flown far and wide by now, no one liked the supervisor and most of them would probably be fully on his side, but for some reason this only made Axle feel more miserable.

Axle suddenly stopped, realizing he didn't know where he was, but then he shrugged it off and continued. He had never been this way before, but he knew if he continued on he would eventually get to somewhere he would know, but had that just been him or had that been a mudokon in the last room he had passed? Axle backtracked, and looked back into the boiler room, or at least he guessed it was a boiler room. Nothing but the rumbling of engines could be heard in this room, that was just how noisy it was. There was no mudokon there anymore, or at least not in sight anymore, if there had ever been. Axle decided to check anyway.

He didn't expect to find anyone, he just wanted to pass away the time, but as Axle glanced around a mass of machinery he froze as he caught sight of the mudokon figure crouched beside an open air vent. He couldn't understand what it was saying, but he could see it was speaking to someone else, a tiny figure only half the mudokon's size and absolutely minuscule compared to Axle. The boilers were muffled here, there was less noise.

Curious, he began to approach, the clanking of metal instantly giving him away just as the smaller figure spotted him and froze, huge mudokon eyes wide in its head, only it wasn't a mudokon; Axle couldn't understand this. The mudokon noticed the smaller one's behaviour and turned to look at what was troubling it only to go rigid in fear as well. It was Beth.

"You!" he growled, storming forward. Beth panicked, she quickly tried to shove the smaller creature back into the air vent but the creature wouldn't move, completely frozen in fear. In a desperate attempt she picked it up and tried to dive into the air vent herself but Axle was ready for this and grabbed her and practically tossed her at the opposite wall. Beth crumpled to the ground but pulled herself back together quickly, she reached out for the smaller figure who had fallen nearby. Axle made for the same grab, and very suddenly the mudokon looking creature was too high for Beth to reach and Axle found himself laughing at the horror on the mudokon's face.

"Put him down! Please put him down!" Beth practically screamed, clearly terrified but not for herself but the creature, and strangely enough Axle picked up on this and decided not to go with what the mudokon was saying; not that he had ever even considered it.

"You're the one causing trouble for me, aren't you?" he demanded fiercely of the mudokon, who instantly shrank back down and cowered away.

Beth kept her mouth shut, she wanted to outright deny it and flee, but this would only risk enraging the giant slig more; but she knew that if she admitted it she would probably be killed on the spot, and then who would look after Bark and Zeph?

"You got me into all those fights! Made me lose my rank and…" Axle suddenly realized something. "You were the up on the bridge leading those escaping muds weren't you?"

Still the mudokon didn't respond, her gaze darting from one place to the next, first from Axle, to the little creature and then to any possible escape routes. The creature in Axle's grip didn't like being held and squealed insanely and began struggling like a mad thing. This distracted Axle, he looked at the odd looking creature, Beth did as well; but unlike him she looked on with concern.

"What is this thing?" Axle rumbled after a pause.

"He is Bark, he was a scientific experiment the vykkers made in the labs, I helped him escape." said the mudokon quickly. "He's practically still a baby, he never did anything, put him down, please...sir."

Axle considered the options briefly. "No. I don't think this thing is suppose to be here, I'm going to take it to the head of security, and then once they've dealt with it I'll come back for you!" Axle turned to leave; the mudokon was by his side in a second.

"No! Please! Yes, I am to blame but Bark has nothing to do with this…"

"Only more reason for me to go."

"I'll kill Bas if you don't stop now!"

Axle immediately stopped, but promptly started laughing uncontrollably.

"You, kill Bas? Did you hit your head just a little too hard a minute ago? How do you even know his name?"

"I could turn the vykker's attention away from you if you let Bark go! They would forget all about you and then you'd be able to get your rank back." Beth said quickly, meanwhile subconciously she decided Bas was probably not guilty, especially since Axle didn't seem to know that she had ever even talked to Bas.

"How did you know about that?"

"It's kind of hard not a notice you amongst all the other lower casts, the ones they aren't going to want for much longer."

"How would you do it? How would you get the vykkers to forget about my record?" Axle had put Bark down now, but still had not let go of him; Beth now looked slightly more at ease.

"Easy." She said. "Just leave it to me."


End file.
